Electroconductive powders in general, and those comprising antimony-containing tin oxide and using such powders for imparting electroconductive properties to a wide variety of surfaces are known generally to the art.
National SAMPE Technical Conference 17,410-419, 1985 describes a powder consisting of conductive Sb-doped SnO2 which is used in a paint to produce a transparent conductive film. Journal of Materials Science, 21,2731-2734, 1986 describes Sb-doped SnO2 films on glass substrates. Japanese Patent No. SHO 63[1988]20342 discloses a method of manufacturing fine electroconductive mica particles by coating them with a tin oxide/antimony oxide mixture. Japanese Patent 63(1989)285119 discloses electroconductive powders comprising flaked particles, such as mica or kaolinite which are coated with TiO2 and SnO2 containing 0.1 to 25 wt % Sb. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,373,013 and 4,452,830 disclose preparing an electroconductive powder having a structure comprising titanium oxide particles as nuclei with a coating of antimony-containing tin oxide on the surface of the titanium oxide particles. European Patent Application Publication No. 0 359 569 (which corresponds to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/386,765, now allowed), discloses electroconductive compositions comprising particles having a thin surface layer of amorphous silica or silica-containing material, said material having a thin surface coating layer which comprises a network of antimony-containing tin oxide crystallites. U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,826 discloses an amorphous silica material in the form of hollow shells which are obtained by dissolving the original particle on which the silica was deposited. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/905,980 filed on Jun. 29, 1992 discloses an electroconductive powder which is in the form of agglomerates comprising fine crystallites of antimony-containing tin oxide uniformly distributed with amorphous silica. Further, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/906,076 filed on Jun. 29, 1992 discloses an electroconductive powder which is in the form of an electroconducting network of antimony-containing tin oxide crystallites and silica upon a substrate particle. U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,613 discloses an electroconductive film, which can contain two types of electroconductive materials described in European Patent Application Publication No. 0 359 569 (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/386,765), that are added separately to a polymeric binder prior to casting an electroconductive coating for making an electrographic recording element.
The disclosure of each of the above-identified documents, patent applications and patents is hereby incorporated by reference.